Meet Caroline Chambers

Friends, I have a very special newsletter for you all today—a chat with Caroline Chambers! She is a culinary force here on Substack, writing delicious and approachable recipes on What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking.

Today, we are celebrating the release of her third cookbook, Make It Fast! Her new book is FULL of delicious dinner recipes, from sheet pan meals to one-pot recipes, and none of them take more than 30 minutes of your time (including ingredient prep). Who doesn’t love that?

In today’s conversation, we cover everything from how Caroline started writing and sharing recipes to the challenges of cooking for your family with a busy work schedule. We also cover our mutual obsession with pickled onions and briny feta, and her must-have ingredients stocked in her pantry. Plus, I made her Tiny Tomato Pasta recipe from Make It Fast, and I’m sharing the recipe with you below. (It’s delicious!!)

I’d love for my readers to get to know you a bit, if they haven’t already followed your incredible newsletter! What brought you to this world of recipe creation and sharing food and family stories on Substack?

I didn’t take the traditional route into food. My husband George was a Navy SEAL, and we moved to San Diego right after we got married. I couldn’t afford culinary school, so I started a catering business with absolutely zero experience but an abundance of enthusiasm to fake it. That led to food styling and recipe development for local magazines and brands, and eventually to culinary consulting in the Bay Area where I wrote recipes for national restaurant chains like Panera and Quiznos.

Writing for restaurant chains is what taught me the thing I’m actually best at. Chefs speak their own language and expect everyone else to speak it too... Have you ever had to stop mid-recipe and Google what “emulsify” means? I learned to write recipes clear enough for a teenager who was hired yesterday and has to make two hundred burrito bowls during lunch rush. Now I write as if I’m standing right next to you in the kitchen, margarita in hand, walking you through it.

Then I had Mattis, and I discovered that being a mom was actually my strength, because I got serious about recipes that work when you have roughly a million fewer free hours per day. I started sharing those on Instagram during lockdown when all my regular gigs disappeared, and launched What To Cook on Substack in December 2020. We’ve added three more boys since then, and with each one my recipes got quicker, hackier, and smarter.

As a working dad, I know how hard it can be to muster the time and energy to make a homemade meal, which is why I love your recipes! They’re quick, streamlined, and delicious. What keeps you energized to cook for your family?

Honestly, some nights nothing does, and that’s the whole premise of my work. I don’t write for the version of me that’s excited to cook. I write for the version standing in the kitchen at 6 pm who has already given everything to the day.

What actually helps is that my kids are in the kitchen with me, however unhelpful that is. My 5-year-old Calum cracked and whisked his own scrambled eggs this morning. The egg went everywhere. But he was occupied for ten solid minutes, and that’s how they learn, so I’ve stopped letting kitchen mess stress me out.

And I grew up with my parents making family dinner a huge deal even when dinner was frozen taquitos. They’d set the table, and we’d sit down together. I learned young that it’s not really about the food - it’s the conversation that happens over it. That’s the part I’m protecting, and it turns out you can protect it with a 20-minute dinner just as well as a two-hour one.

Can you give us a bit of background behind the inspiration for your new book, Make It Fast?

My first book was organized by time - 15, 30, 45, 60 minutes. And after watching people cook out of it for a year, the 15s and 30s were what everyone actually made. Those were the recipes getting memorized, texted around, brought on vacation. So I wrote a whole book of them.

I was also pregnant with my fourth while writing it, which sharpened everything. I was so tired and so unwilling to cook that every unnecessary step got cut. Do I really need that herb garnish? No? Nix it.

The one thing I’d push back on with most fast cookbooks: the timing here includes the prep. That sounds small, and it’s the entire thing. So many 30-minute recipes mean thirty minutes after you’ve chopped and minced and measured. The prep is written into the instructions here, so 15 minutes means 15 minutes from walking into the kitchen.

Is there a part of the journey for making this book that you enjoyed the most?

The food photo shoot! When I’m testing a recipe, I’m not thinking about beauty at all. I’m thinking about function. Does it hold together? Is the texture right? Is it salted enough? Are the flavors actually coming through, or is one of them bullying the others? Did the timing hold up? I photograph every single test, but those pictures are purely for reference - a phone shot of a skillet on my stove, usually with a kid’s hand reaching into the frame. They’re not pretty. They’re evidence.

So then you walk onto set with Erin Scott, who shot the book, and Lillian Kang and Paige Arnett on food styling - people whose entire job is making food look gorgeous - and they’ve made your recipe start to finish, and it’s sitting there under the lights looking like something you’d drop everything for. That’s the moment. You watch a thing you built purely for function turn into something genuinely inspiring.

I should also say I showed up to that shoot with a seven-week-old baby, running on no sleep, and that team completely rolled with it - the baby, my cuckoo bananas children, a cat trying to jump on the counters!! They brought endless positivity, snacks, and caffeine to set every single day. I adore all of them.

Was there any specific inspiration for the Tiny Tomato Pasta recipe?

This recipe came out of a summer where the tiny tomatoes at our farmer’s market were absolutely popping off - sweet and juicy Sungolds everywhere that were begging to be turned into sauce! So that’s what I did. Butter, sliced garlic, two pounds of tiny tomatoes cooked until they burst, and a lot of Parm!

But the real story is the angel hair, which I owe entirely to my third son, Cashel. I used to be an angel hair hater! Then I got pregnant with him, and the cravings arrived, and one of them was angel hair pasta. It’s the perfect vessel for this sauce, thin enough that every strand gets coated.

What are your must-have ingredients (spices, packaged mix, canned veg, grains, etc.) to keep stocked in your pantry that make cooking easier/better?

Diamond Crystal kosher salt, and I mean specifically that brand - if you use table salt in my recipes, they’ll be way too salty. Whole peppercorns in a grinder, never preground, which goes stale fast and is basically dust by the time you shake it on anything.

Better Than Bouillon instead of boxed stock. One jar in the fridge takes almost no space and equals many quarts. Tomato paste in a tube. Jarred sun-dried tomatoes. Canned chipotles in adobo. Coconut milk, because coconut rice is a family favorite. Gochujang for a lot of flavor without much heat if you use a small amount.

Is there any ingredient or food product you’re obsessed with right now?

I have had a jar of pickled red onions in my fridge continuously since April. They take about four minutes, and once you have them, you’ll put them on everything. What I love is that you can steer them wherever you need them to go. Want them for tacos or anything with chile and cilantro? Use lime instead of vinegar. Want them a little more savory and grown-up, for a cheese board or alongside pork? Throw in some peppercorns. Want heat? Slice a jalapeño into the jar, and now they’re doing two jobs at once. Putting them on something already sweet, like watermelon or peaches? A spoonful of honey or sugar softens the sharp edge so they’re not fighting the fruit.

Also, I’ve put feta on 90% of my meals this summer. It has to be the kind packed in brine, not the pre-crumbled stuff in a tub - it’s creamier and more flavorful. Between feta and pickled red onions, you can take a plate of basically anything and make it a meal. Watermelon with honey lime dressing, mint, basil, feta, pickled red onions, and serranos. A little gem salad with avocado, pine nuts, green goddess, feta, and more pickled onions!

Lastly, for the sweet-tooths, what are you enjoying baking?

John, I have to be honest with you and your readers: I am not a baker. Baking asks for precision and patience, and I have neither. When we bake in this house, it’s from a box mix - four kids, a box mix, and nobody crying about leveling flour. It’s the least stressful version of the activity.

BUT. I’ve been on a serious Dutch baby kick this year, and I think it’s the loophole. I blend eggs and milk and flour together, pour it into a hot buttered skillet, and the oven does something absurd to it - it climbs up the sides and puffs into this enormous golden thing, and everyone loses their minds when you pull it out. It’s dramatic, minimal ingredients, and no part of it requires me to be precise about anything. That’s my kind of baking!

For everything else, I’m just going to keep reading your newsletter and letting you handle it. :)

This recipe from Caroline’s new book is so delicious! The boys and I made it last week for dinner. The cherry tomatoes are abundant in our garden right now, so we picked a basket of fresh ones. Caroline suggests Sungolds if you have them! We had a sweet variety of red cherry tomatoes that were ripe on the vine, and they were quite tasty.

The butter really enhances the savory qualities of the tomatoes and makes them taste even more tomato-y. And I will confirm—this took 15 minutes to make! The Angel hair boils fast, and the tomatoes just cook long enough to soften, which also keeps them tasting fresh. I kept the finish simple, just like she recommended, with fresh-picked basil and a shower of Parmesan—I will definitely be making this again!

Here’s the recipe! I hope you’ll make it and pick up a copy of her new book, too—it’s truly fast and delicious!

Serves 4 to 6

Starring vine-ripe tiny tomatoes and a handful of fragrant basil—this, my friends, is peak summer cooking. What to Cookers everywhere are addicted to this pasta! It’s best with the freshest summer tomatoes— especially Sungolds—but if you’re craving it midwinter, you can make it with cherry tomatoes and add a pinch of sugar. Use whatever pasta you’ve got, but I’m telling you, angel hair is absolutely elite here.

Ingredients:

• Kosher salt

• 1 pound angel hair pasta

• 6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter

• 6 garlic cloves

• 2 pounds cherry, Sungold, or grape tomatoes

• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

• Handful of fresh basil

• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (4 ounces), plus more for serving

Method:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente according to the package directions. Scoop out 1½ cups of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta.

2. Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Thinly slice the garlic. Add the garlic, tomatoes, 1½ teaspoons salt, and the red pepper flakes to the pot and turn up the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are bursting and forming a sauce with the butter, about 8 minutes. Use a spatula to carefully smash any tomatoes that haven’t burst on their own against the side of the pan. Turn off the heat.

3. Thinly slice the basil.

4. To the sauce in the pot, add the cooked pasta, ¼ cup of the reserved pasta cooking water (see Learn, page 60), most of the basil (reserve a little bit for garnish), and ½ cup of the Parm and stir until all the cheese has melted into a smooth sauce. Stir in the remaining ½ cup Parm until smooth. Stir in more of the pasta cooking water until everything looks saucy and delicious. Taste and add more salt as needed.

5. Scoop into shallow bowls and top each serving with some of the reserved basil and more Parm.

Tip: If you’re feeding picky/textureaverse eaters, blend the sauce with an immersion blender or transfer it to a standing blender before adding the pasta, basil, and Parm.

Learn: Stirring in the cheese in two batches helps it melt more evenly without clumping.

Shortcut: I will always and forever grate my own Parm in the blender or food processor. Just cut off the rind, cut it into a few hunks, and blend or process until grated!

You can order your copy of Caroline’s new book here.

Recipe reprinted with permission from What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Make it Fast by Caroline Chambers © 2026. Published by Union Square & Co., an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group. Photography by Erin Scott.

Have a question about the recipe? Leave a comment for me below!